Another Doctor Speaks out Against Raw Cacao

I was so happy to see yet another Doctor, Dr. Charles Partito, the creator of the Ejuva Cleanse, speaking out about the dangers of raw cacao. Find out why raw cacao is a dangerous drug, and what really happens when you eat cacao and other stimulants, from a scientific perspective, below.

Cacao, food of the Gods, or food not fit for my dogs?

by Dr. Charles Partito

Greetings!

Cacao has taken the raw movement by storm! There are raw chocolate contests, virtually every site sells it. Many raw leaders say its the food of Gods, I say, its not fit for my dogs. Lets break it down and then you decide.

Enjoy!

Cacao
I spent years studying food, earning a degree in something called “Food Chemistry and its Relationship to the Human body.” To know if something is good for you or not there are basic rules or qualifications a food must meet. The first one is, is it a real food? The definition of a real food is “Something eatable, grown by nature, of which a bowlful can be eaten and thoroughly enjoyed without processing it in anyway.” Also, what food type is the food? Is it a fruit, veggie, seed, or nut? Or, is it meat, or a legume?
Though Cacao is grown by nature and is arguably the most chemically complex plant in nature it must be processed prior to consumption. Cacao is a legume (bean) and when you break open the pod it is a literal slimy, gooey substance. As for the taste, it is disgusting in its natural form!!! Legumes, or beans are NOT part of a healthful diet. All Legumes contain more toxins than nutrients making them a negative. Legumes are VERY difficult to digest in that they contain equal parts of protein and starch (creates gas) and must be cooked prior to consumption (exception spouted beans like mung).

Cacao is cooked in the pod, they call it fermentation. They must heat up the slimy substance found in the pods in order to extract the cacao from the pods. The heat changes the naturally occurring chemicals so that it then becomes palatable for human consumption. Remember, not only are legumes NOT considered health producing but a real food should require no processing and should taste great right from the vine/tree/plant and cacao does NOT meet this criteria. A legume must be processed, that tells me this “food” is NOT health producing.

Chemical Make up:

Our bodies have a built in mechanism to eliminate toxins in a hurry called stimulation. Stimulation should NEVER occur when we eat health producing foods. Yet, those that say cacao is a producer of health have chocolate parties where people become so stimulated they are awake the whole night through.

Stimulation occurs as an effort to eliminate as much toxins as possible, as fast as possible. It’s a mini cleanse. It works like this, the body will have the adrenals shock the liver with adrenaline. This forces the liver to dump large amounts of glucose (the only thing on earth that gives the body energy) into the blood stream. We feel euphoric, energized, all is right with World.Â This explains why the drive through line at Starbucks is very long every morning.Â It also explains why raw leaders will tell you of the wonderful sensations while on cacao.Â Eat an Apple, strawberry or banana you will NOT be stimulated.Â That’s because you are NOT supposed to get your energy through stimulation! Stimulation means you are being poisoned, and it eventually causes adrenal fatigue. Â Cacao is a huge stimulant, otherwise users would not be up all night reporting the feeling of euphoria.

Raw leaders will tell you about all the wonderful nutrients found in cacao. It’s true, there are nutrients in all plants. But, what they fail to mention is cacao has FAR more toxins than nutrients. Proof of this is the poor taste prior to being fermented. Your taste buds are there for a reason. They’re your built in alarm system and they will let you know what to spit out and what to swallow. You would definitely spit out cacao if it were not fermented and the people you trusted were not telling you it was good for you! Stimulation would not occur if too many toxins were not involved. I could tell you about all the wonderful nutrients found in the coca leaf. All the magnesium, and the calcium, and call it live. How you would be energized and feel euphoric if you bought my coca and chewed on it. But, it’s related to cocaine and it would never fly. However, chocolate, that’s a different story, it’s harmless, it brings back great memories, who doesn’t LOVE chocolate?

It matters not how abundant the nutrients are if the toxins outweigh the nutrients. If all the nutrients fit on a pinhead and all the toxins add up to the size of a golf-ball then the food is a negative as is the case with legumes, and coca leaf for that matter.

When one consumes an apple, pull their blood and you will find that their white blood cell count stays neutral. When one consumes cacao their WBC’s triple. This is huge!!! This means the human body itself feels that cacao is a foreign invader. How could one, no matter who they are possibly argue that fact? That fact alone means the case against cacao is closed.

In closing, can a legume, with more toxins then nutrients, that stimulates the body, that raises the WBC’s, that must be processed, that tastes horrible, produce health in the body? The answer is no! But, just to be sure I asked my teachers and mentors and they all say no too. Its a stimulant, period.

For those that tout cacao as healthy by saying ancient civilizations called it food of the gods, if memory serves these were the same civilizations that murdered (sacrificed) tens of thousands in honor of their gods. These very civilizations became extinct, so how much credibility do you want to offer these civilizations and their ideologies? Food of the Gods, nope, more like food not fit for my dogs!

Keeping it in perspective, I would feel like a hypocrite if I didn’t say this. There are people that place heroin in their veins daily for some 20 to 30 years and live to tell about it. In that respect will a little cacao kill you? No, I use something called Amazing Grasses in my seed milk and it contains a little cacao for flavoring. I’m willing to do this because 98% of my drink is health producing. I’m OK with 2% of what I consume being bad. This because I feel I deserve a great tasting drink once in a while. I’ve done the math, it still is by far overwhelmingly a positive drink to place in my body (far more nutrients then toxins). Onions, garlic, mushrooms and olive oil do not produce health either. But, I’ll throw a little of each on my salads for taste, as the overwhelming majority of my salads are health producing. The point is, to tout cacao as health producing just to make a buck off the unsuspecting, is flat out wrong!
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Sincerely,

Dr. Charles Partito N.D. / Raw Nutritionist
Ejuva

Thank you to Dr. Partito, Dr. Clements, and the other medical researchers who are helping to educate us on this important matter that every health seeker needs to know!

62 Responses to Another Doctor Speaks out Against Raw Cacao

These people are not real doctors. They have bullshit degrees from no-name universities. Cacao is called a “bean” but it is not a legume. Same thing with coffee “beans”: they aren’t actually fucking beans. That should be your first fucking clue that this guy is a fucking idiot.

Newsflash: people who put “Dr.” in front of their name on the internet are almost never medical doctors. In this case, there’s the suspect “N.D.” degree. What is this? Where is it from? Search the internet for Charles Partito: you’ll find he never seems to get around to telling us where his degree is from. Harvard? Yale? My ass? Why can’t we know where he got his degree? This kind of mystery doesn’t happen with real doctors who have real degrees from actually accredited colleges and universities.

tl;dr — Charles Partito is a quack bullshitter w a fake degree. Not a doctor. Stop with this raw food bullshit.

I had 2 tablespoons of cacao 2 days ago, felt stimulated and thought I had found gold. Next day I had a mouth canker [first in many years] felt cranky and out of sorts, today I’m very tired.
I’ll trust my reaction to confirm the doctor and not you!
Your use of the f word shows your heart and liver is overheated. Maybe you should ask Dr. Charles Partito for some help. You need it!

Yesterday I received a packet of cacao i ordered on amazon and immediately made two smoothies with it around 5pm (about 4 tablespoons worth). I thought I was going to die all evening and it just started to wear off around 6 this morning. Brutal headache, wanted to vomit (but didn’t), even ended up getting the spins. Resting heart rate, usually around 55 since I’m a runner, was up around 75 for most of the night. Been pounding water, salt, fruits, veggies, and it’s not totally out of my system, but this garbage is toxic and I will stay far, far away from it!!

Thank you for the knowledgeable & honest info, the years of researching are evident.
There is a new choconuvo product I just tried tasted good but afterwards I felt like I just took amphetamine. Your findings ring very true for me. My adrenals, hormones & liver are challenged enough without adding choco to the issue.
How we are affected is obviously very individual but uncertainty is a good caution signal. Thanks again.

Hi I’m quite new to all this, but I’ve been drinking a lot of green smoothies lately and they always make me feel amazing after. This morning I made myself some homemade coconut milk and blended it with a three dates and a couple of teaspoons of organic raw cacao powder and I felt like utter crap for about 2 hours. Maybe it just doesn’t suit me, but my instincts are telling me it’s not a healthy thing to eat (for me at least.)

Anyone still eating cacao I would highly recommend doing some research and then stopping immediately. Ask yourself why risk doing something that is unnecessary for good health if it can potenially harm you. After 6 years of fairly high daily consumption of raw cacao it nearly killed me! As a vegan yoga teacher who meditates 2 hours a day and who’s life is focused on health I couldn’t work out why I was getting tired, anxious, angry, heart palpitations and eventually serious asthmatic allergy symptoms. It was all cacao! Detoxed from it and ALL symptoms disappeared. Do yours a favour. Cut it from your diet straight away then support your liver and adrenals to get healthy again.

Similar anecdote here. 20y old endurance athlete, felt awful, foggy-headed, lethargic each day, all day, for over a year. Blood chemistry showed high ALT, AST, but I never drink alcohol, and no viral infections. I cut out cinnamon, curry powder, and cocoa powder–3 foods that are often touted as healthy for the liver–and I felt normal and energetic within a few days. Poisons like these are probably healthy in small doses to get the liver active and its juices flowing, especially for the pre-diabetic fatty liver. But when you overstress the liver with toxins, especially if your liver is already stressed with endurance training (the lactic acid Cori cycle, as well as other high metabolic demands), it will quit functioning properly.

Hello! I just found your website and wanted to mention that the following quote from you is not evidenced-based information. I believe your intentions are good, but legumes are your friends!

“Legumes, or beans are NOT part of a healthful diet. All Legumes contain more toxins than nutrients making them a negative. Legumes are VERY difficult to digest in that they contain equal parts of protein and starch (creates gas) and must be cooked prior to consumption (exception spouted beans like mung).”

I ate cacao fresh from the pod with that ‘white gooey’ slim around it, and I thought it was delicious, the white part tastes fruity and the bean tastes nutty! I suppose my taste buds aren’t looking out for me!

Haha, me too. I think it’s pretty silly to suggest that something is unhealthy because it has a texture the author doesn’t like. I didn’t find it particularly slimy, but I do find seaweed that hasn’t been dried to be both tasty and slimy. Should I stay away from that? Palates are different. The taste argument doesn’t hold water and puts the other statements in this article into question.

Doctor, please do you homework! Although cacao is referred to as “beans”, it is actually a fruit. It grows on trees, not on bean plants. It is therefore NOT a legume.
I cannot cut and paste sources on my tablet, but they come up readily in a Google search.

Hello. I’ve been having a lot of raw cacao powder (1 cup per day)in the past few days in an attempt alter my mood. I have been feeling really sick today and think the cacao is the cause. My body aches, head ache, can’t move and if i have to , I move slowly, feeling fatigued. Also having heart palpitations.

Have you heard of of cases like this? And if it is poisoning of some sort, or toxic, will it pass?

Hi Brigid,
What else have you been eating? How did you prepare the raw cacao? 1 cup per day is a lot, about 25-50g would be plenty to give you a ‘mood lift’ but it should sit alongside a healthy diet…
A

Anyone still eating cacao I would highly recommend doing some research and then stopping immediately. Ask yourself why risk doing something that is unnecessary for good health if it can potenially harm you. After 6 years of fairly high daily consumption of raw cacao it nearly killed me! As a vegan yoga teacher who meditates 2 hours a day and who’s life is focused on health I couldn’t work out why I was getting tired, anxious, angry, heart palpitations and eventually serious asthmatic allergy symptoms. It was all cacao! Detoxed from it and ALL symptoms disappeared. Do yours a favour. Cut it from your diet straight away then support your liver and adrenals to get healthy again.

Kinda sounds like bunch of crock to me. He claims to be a chemist but has no idea the simple knowledge of the actual stimulate in cocoa(theobroma). Theobroma stimulates the heart and can help lower blood pressure. Caffeine stimulates the adrenaline glands due to stimulating the nervous system. Caffeine can get you high as well in large doses due to it blocking your body a1 receptors allowing more dopinmine to flow through the blood. Yes cocoa naturally has caffeine in it but it’s so minuscule that it does not impact the nervous system one bit since it has around on avg of 8mg of caffeine per 5g of cocoa. I actually can drink cocoa before bed fine and sleep well and I don’t drink no coffee and very sensitive to caffeine. Of course too much is bad for you but, so is everything is else can be as well. Balance is key.

Sorry Jinjee – i both think and feel differently. I find raw cacao does not give me that weird buzz that a bar of regular dark chocolate does. It lifts me and my spirits, that’s true. But it doesn’t act like a bar of dark chocolate from roasted beans. I wonder if the source of the cacao might play a part in how it affects a person though. Like i’ve heard many stories of the effects of different alcohols – a person can drink the same alcohol volume, but have a completely different experience from it depending on the type of cider or type of beer. (I’m not a drinker and don’t class myself as a chocoholic btw).

Who is this doctor?
Hahaha, cacao is a fruit.
The beans are not legumes, they are seeds.
Just like apple seeds, they taste BAD!
It doesn’t make them legumes.
legumes don’t exhibit the property of “more toxins than nutrition” that’s RETARDED. Sugar peas are legumes. The taste DELICIOUSLY raw, so even by this quack they are considered real food.
There is a lot of truth behind cacao being very toxic, but these explanations are mostly wrong, unscientific and with little (mistakingly interpreted) regard to human metabolism.

I eat chocolate from unfermented unroasted beans because at fermenting you heat up the beans to 50 / 60 celcius for 6 to 10 days they kill all enzymes with fermenting.
with roasting you get a acrylamide a neuro toxin in the chocolate you don’t want that eighter.
I have also people with COPD who reduced after 30 years corticosteroïds in 7 months to zero on high flavonoid raw cacao i also eat .Her dad who was a doctor died on this chronic COPD.

So i think you have to moderate less = more and when it bennefit your health to stop the real chemicals from petochemical industry in to your body.
You can eat with no doubt only a real enzyme rich raw high flavonoid cacao.
learn what doctors have to say about chocolate at my FB wall xocolatlvita.

Hi Peter, I’m tempted to try it—- sort of!
I bet fermented is good for B12 too right? — do you have any research on that?
….Most likely I will pass, as I feel fine without cacao and I do love carob!
Yours,
Jinjee

Every morning I take raw cacao mixed with reishi mushroom, cordyceps, chaga mushroom, rhodiola, and he shou wu. I do not suffer from adrenal burnout or any of the other dangers described by this article. In fact, my health has been better than ever with this combination.

It’s possible to take advantage of the health benefits of a given substance while reducing or eliminating its negative impact on your body. I don’t really see any practical benefit to taking raw cacao by itself or as a pleasurable additive included in things like smoothies and yogurt. If it’s about nutrition then most of the nutrients found in raw cacao can be found elsewhere.

The average cup of coffee contains 90mg of caffeine and the average cup of black tea contains 65mg. Raw cacao contains 1/20th the caffeine amount of coffee, so I believe the dangers of caffeine in this article are over-stated.

The other thing to consider is that caffeine is metabolized differently from individual to individual. Caffeine is broken down by the liver enzyme CYP1A2. If you’re someone like me who has multiple copies of this enzyme gene, then you have rapid metabolizer status and caffeine will not be neuro-toxic to you. I can drink 6 cups of coffee and feel nothing, whereas my friend who is a slow metabolizer gets the shakes when she drinks it.

Similarly, my body cannot process legumes. They give me bad gas and bloating, fullness, distension in my abdomen, and even pain. But one of my good friends? She eats them like they are going out of style, and they are a basic food source in her diet.

Raw cacao definitely has anti-oxidative properties that are superior to that of many top foods, such as blueberries and green tea. You can go to Pubmed.org and read actual abstracts on the discovered benefits. The key is understanding how the substance affects *you personally* by observing what happens after you take it. Then, you need to moderate your lifestyle to determine how much you want to take, or if you should be taking it at all.

Never trust sweeping generalizations about supplements. They work for some, not at all for others, and for some they can even be dangerous. There is no one-size-fits-all explanation.

Hi Jinjee. I have recently begun the raw vegan lifestyle – all on my own – and of course am struggling to find good information out there. I have been a junk-food vegetarian for many years and, at 52, am about 60 lbs. overweight, have high blood pressure, and am certain I am headed towards heart disease since that’s what most of my family has died from. I already feel better and my joints aren’t aching as badly just from my recent changes! I am also trying to help my 17-year-old daughter who suffers from Celiac (go figure), and as a result seems to have many other complaints like headached, fatigure, etc…
I have been researching and searching for good information, but I find myself returning to your website repeatedly because many other sites either seem “marketed” or novice, etc… You and your husband seem so genuine and knowledgeable, you don’t advocate any supplements or superfoods.
Anyway, I am interested in the 28-day program that starts August 6th. Hubby and I are both full-time music students (love your performances on your videos), and are on very limited budgets. I have a regular blender and a small food processor – I don’t know if I can make nut butters. Do you think that would be enough for the program? Or is there something I can purchase for under $50? In a month or so I will be able to buy something better, but I just want to make sure I can get through the program now. I am READY to do this and I need help!!!
Thanks for sharing all that you do. It’s very inspiring.
Linda

Oops, I don’t think I posted in the right place! haha! It looks like I’m on a thread about cocoa/cacao (however you spell it.) By the way, I was looking forward to some raw chocolate, but now I’ll have to wait and see. And as for olive oil, some people say olive oil is a processed food and 100% fat and has no nutritional value. I realize that I’m going to have to use trial and error and see what works for me, I suppose.

Would love to hear more about these. Perhaps there is some element to their lifestyle or environment balancing them out. Also, most people’s ideas of healthy involves living a few years longer than average, whereas I think many people exploring raw and spiritually healthy living are seeking something more.

Indians always fermented and roasted their beans before consuming them. That is the great thing about cooking. A lot of plants produce toxins to prevent them being eaten by herbivores. Cooking often neutralises the toxins and allows more nutrients to be digested. Through human evolution, with the mastering of fire our intestines have become shorter and our bellies flatter. That’s why we don’t have a big belly like chimpanzees. Chimps eat raw, vegetarian food. Humans are omnivores and cook their food.

I don’t know about you guys but after researching this issue, I’ve decided that cacao/cocoa is a stimulant that I would like to avoid in the future. I’m thinking this stuff is just marketed as a health food to take advantage of people. Also, it does seem to be addicting and who really wants to admit that they are an addict? Everyone will defend their vices by finding something redeeming abuot them. I want off this fun train before my adrenal glands/organs are messed up!

“Onions, garlic, mushrooms and olive oil do not produce health either.” According to who? Where does this come from? I was with you on the article until I read this point. Mushrooms are iffy but onions and especially garlic have several health benefits (for example cardioprotection, antiparasitic) as does olive oil (as long as it’s not overheated – which since this is a raw food site, I’m assuming you’re not doing).

I used to get bumps on my tonsils after eating garlic until I began cutting the core out of the garlic clove. Yes, each clove has a core, and you can easily remove it after cutting the clove down the center!

Hi Michael,
I haven’t looked it up because I’m fine with onions and garlic. I learned from a monk that these foods were mildly stimulating and didn’t allow him to sink down in to his meditations as well. As my meditations are in the morning before eating, and I’m not as advanced as the monk, I don’t think having onions and garlic in my diet will much affect me. I imagine they are such a subtle stimulant that would only affect someone highly sensitive. There are people out there who have issues with all kind of things! — dates, bananas, carrots, tomatoes, citrus, fruit in general, nuts, even spring water!

When I come across conflicting information, and I’m not sure which side to believe (Is raw cacoa a superfood or super dangerous?), I always err on the side of safety. Always. If I hear something might be really bad for you, I will eliminate it from my diet. Such is the case with cacao. I do believe raw cacao is bad for us. But even if I wasn’t sure, I’d still eliminate it. Because, really, what is worse?: 1) Thinking it is bad, eliminating it, and finding out later it was okay to eat; OR 2) Thinking it is good for us, eating it, and finding out later it causes serious health problems? So, see, I err on the side of caution. Same reason I avoid plastics, microwaves, agave syrup, and most chemicals (among other things).

I just finished reading more of your material on your sites and I have to say that I am very impressed and inspired. So, maybe what you’ve posted on the cocoa beans is something I should not take as “ridiculus” as I previously wrote. I am thinking….just thinking ’bout trying a raw diet. I do know that I feel so much better when most of my diet is raw….it’s just that the idea of raw broccoli and some other vegetables, such as Kale, seems pretty uggy to me.

Thanks for the open mindedness! I heard the word “vegetably” for the first time, when we made our sun-baked greens for our friend….We’re just in love with it…but he was like…wow, this is so vegetably! We had to laugh. Its funny how you shift after eating raw for a while to a totally different feeling about and taste for vegetables!
And some people just have a way with raw veggies, making them taste amazing!

Kale is heavy stuff, when you first start to eat it raw, was my opinion. But when you put it in a green smoothie with some sweet fruits you won’t even taste it.
Same for me with endive and broccoli. When you start with a raw diet put a bit of it in a green smoothie, you get the health benefits and you can quietly get used to the taste if you increase the amount with every smoothie you take.

I’m not disputing the safety issue of ‘raw’ cacao. However, I have to tell you as a person who has traveled to cacao farms and eaten raw cacao out of the pod, the white goo is incredibly sweet and tasty. The beans are rather bitter, but not disgusting by any means. They crack open the pods using a rock or a machete. Then the beans and placenta (the interior white part) are removed and fermented without the pods which are tossed away. Some of the first liquid to be released can also be used to make cacao juice and also cacao wine which is also quite good.

So, the description above is completely incorrect about how this actually happens AND cacao is not a legume. Your information here isn’t accurate.

Thanks for the article – it’s interesting and I went and checked out Dr. Partito’s web site.

Still, I must say, I am surprised at this doctor! Not all “beans” are legumes, see scientific classifications below.

As for the rest of his argument, I suspect he is right, though I wish otherwise, and am not ready to ditch cacao. I have always heard one should never feed chocolate to a dog, wonder why he didn’t mention that.

Hi Jinjee- I went to Dr. Partito’s website and could not find this article you have on your blog. When I went to his website, the first thing I see is a picture of David Wolfe- he is proud to have David Wolfe sponsoring his product- hmmmmm…. the very person who says cacao is a wonderful superfood… and which I have personally found to be highly toxic. I’m wondering what’s going on????
Thanks,
Michelle

Hi Michelle,
The article came from the Ejuva newsletter, which you can sign up for on his site… maybe you could access his archives then, I don’t know. I can forward you the original if you let me know your email. Re. David Wolfe, I’m not surprised they have a relationship. Dr. Partito is OK with agreeing to disagree. We are all in the same movement here… though we do debate our differences quite passionately!

Not much, compared with raw cacao. Onions and garlic are slightly stimulating. Mushrooms should be washed really well for parasites, and eaten in moderation. And olive oil I would need to research. I thought it was great for you. Of course, one wouldn’t do more than a few tablespoons a day in dressings and such.

Please know it is VERY important to COOK Mushrooms! Check out what Paul Stamets says in his books on Mushrooms; NEVER eat them raw….cooking them brings out the benefits (which are many ! )…eating them raw is not a good idea at all…